http://goinglocaltravel.com/?p=866

I am truly interested in what you say about the implications of “agreeing to disagree” on the concept of what is an authentic and local experience, so to speak. The problem is how do we determine what is authentic and local for everybody in such a subjective experience like traveling?

But you are right, certain things cannot be seen as authentic in any way, nor as contributing to the promotion of a more local way of traveling. In the end, if we work to create a type of tourist offer that can bring people beyond the usual routes so that they get to know other and often more authentic realities, projects like this might end up frustrating all our efforts in the long run.

Of course, as I said in my post, I do have a conflict of interest in a way (glad I am not a journalist ): I am glad if homeaway pays these two folks to go around and say how cool it is to choose vacation rentals rather than hotels, but at the same time, I am not glad at all when they end up reinforcing certain stereotypes such as that if you go to a popular place you can still just as easily have the local experience…

Just like you (by the way, do you have a website or a blog?) for me, the idea of promoting a local more authentic way of traveling is a value, because I also AM a LOCAL. And not only because I hope that people discover my home village and its region, which are still off the tourist tracks, but also because I believe that that is the type of travel we should encourage. I try to promote that for our second home, Pisa, which on the other hand is quite touristy in places. But I know there is much more.

I think I have written too much as usual. Thank you for your very insightful comment again, and I am looking forward to discussing these things with you again soon!

I am very, truly and deeply sorry that they felt offended. I never intended to say that my view was objective and theirs was not. I do not even believe in objectivity: we always filter anything through our subjectivity.

I am however really disappointed that they didn’t have/take the time to read what I was writing and meant (they insisted several times that I was criticising the choice of Apulia, when I never did), and ended up misinterpreting my words.

In the end, they wrote to me that one of my tweets suggested that my commentary was objective and theirs was promotion “yet you’re a property owner, we’re journalists”

I did not expect such a defensive attitude especially because I make no mystery of me being a vacation rental owner and because I never implied such thing in any of my tweets or here. I was actually referring to the topic of a blog post published on Going Local Travel, actually. You see… in Tuscany we say “a far del bene ai ciuchi si rimedian le pedate” (If you pet a donkey, it will kick you!). I thought I was making their work (which I have always appreciated very much, as I think I have stated more than once) known to the friends who follow my blog (I won’t have the many followers they have but I still have 4000 unique visitors each month), and instead I was wasting their time… Who would have guessed… You live, you learn.

I think we all need a moment to think: being journalists doesn’t mean being right all the time or that one’s opinion is worth more than that of others. if one participates in a social network he/she has to be social and accept debate and different opinions.

Well, despite wishing them well for their grand tourismo project, I am sorry to say, they have definitely lost a fan… and home away has probably lost two ads (not that neither of them will ever notice!)

Bed time!

This post was mentioned on Twitter by casinadirosa: Hidden Gems and Popular Spots the eternal struggle between local and global,interested promotion & objective commentary http://bit.ly/dxQRmb...

Just to make a couple of things clearer, if they are not already, I would like to repeat that I am indeed a fan of your work (present and past).

I absolutely agree that there is no need to sleep on somebody’s couch to get a local experience and that a nice place can just be as good. In the end, a holiday is what you make of it.

I understand why you have chosen beautiful places to stay, that’s what I meant on Twitter when I wrote that in Italian we would describe your choice as “unire l’utile al dilettevole” (to combine business with pleasure).

I also know you have been renting local apartments in local neighbourhoods: and this is exactly why this choice of a trullo surprised me. But maybe it’s just because this is my country so I get the feeling that a trullo is as non-local as it gets. LOL! It seemed a different choice than the ones you had made up to now. That’s all.

I also agree with the choice of Puglia over, let’s say Tuscany. I never ever intended to criticise the choice of the Italian region, just the spot in the region and the type of accommodation. (Not sure Puglia is less touristy than Valle d’Aosta though… Just different seasonal tourists, I guess.)

As to the places I would choose for myself, if I were to go on holiday, I would probably choose a less “colourful” accommodation than a trullo, but certainly a nice accommodation in a beautiful area (if I can afford it), just like the type of travelers you mention. I just had in my mind that you were after less popular choices among the many offered by Home Away. I guess I misinterpreted the aim of your effort.

That you bring vacation rentals to the spotlight for a wider audience makes me the happiest person in the world (both as a vacation rental owner and a Home Away advertiser! LOL). I just have the double perspective of those who own a rental in a very popular spot (Pisa) and a rental in a much more beautiful but less promoted/popular/known place (the Upper Maremma… not Siena, not Maremma either…). And by the way, we have Internet everywhere! LOL

Talking marketing strategies, which I realize are just a part of your work, and I have no problems at all with it, I just had this idea that you would chose less explored areas among those present in the portal site (which are nevertheless not unknown or people wouldn’t pay the money to be in the portal to begin with), because also in terms of marketing/PR I expected it would make sense for HomeAway. The rentals in Alberobello will always rent and the owners will always be happy to renew their Home Away subscription, whereas owners of properties in areas that deserve a bit of help in terms of visibility could benefit from your presence, and Home Away too in terms of more people wanted to go to those areas hence more properties for home away.

This said, let me thank you once again very much for all of this. I am looking forward to reading about your next adventure!

As I pointed out to your on Twitter, this is *partly* a PR/marketing exercise – HomeAway have hired us to blog and tweet (and publish stories) about the experience of staying in property rentals as being more authentic than staying in hotels – which is why the internet is so essential. But that’s one factor.

However, if you read this information about the Project itself http://grantourismotravels.com/the-project/ you’ll see that this quest for authenticity and meaning in travel was a project we’d been developing for years, which arose from our work as travel writers, spending most of our time checking in and out of hotels, and getting frustrated by seeing other travellers spending all their time in the tourist zones, heads in their guidebooks, ticking off sights, or following guides waving flags.

Our most satisfying experiences as travel writers were always when we worked on a city guidebook and spent a month or two or three in a city and learned to live as locals do. Of course, we’ve been expats too, living in the Middle East for 12 years, so we already have the skills to adapt quickly to places as locals do (and know how to buy SIM cards and USB cards as locals do! We now have quite a collection of them! although funnily enough the owner of our place in Sardinia is buying us a USB so we can immediately get started) and these are the strategies we want to share with people through the project.

So it was serendipitous that we discovered that HomeAway had a similar project in mind and we could work together. But while it *is* partly a marketing project, that’s not *all* it is. We’ve been based in the UAE for 12 years, so we know how easy it is for tourists to dismiss places because they only see it from the tourist zone, from hotel rooms – no city has been more unfairly treated than Dubai! tourists who visit on 24 hour stopovers and travel journalists who do 3-day junkets often don’t experience the things that locals love most about the place – so that was a reason we never wanted to stay in hotels for this project, even if they’re hotels locals stay in.

However, we can’t forget that we’re writing for people who love travel and are contemplating travel, and most people (not all of course) travel because they on holidays, so while there is definitely an increasing interest in more authentic and more enriching local travel experiences – and this is no doubt a reaction to the globalization of travel and culture; that everything is becoming the same – people on the whole still want to stay in nice places, they still want to relax by a pool, they still have in their mind what an ideal holiday in Italy (or wherever) is from travel magazines and television shows that have inspired them to choose one destination over another.

Not everyone wants to stay in a cheap motel by the beach, or a caravan in someone’s yard, or a local’s spare bedroom (or couch) in a house in the suburbs. Of course some people do, but we’re writing for people who are choosing or thinking about choosing holiday rentals (and that’s where the marketing bit comes in again). Of course some of us want to do those things – i’ve stayed in the outer suburbs of cities like Buenos Aires and Cusco with friends of my family and while in both cases it was an extraordinary learning experience, I know where I prefer staying and I probably wouldn’t do it again.

This explains partly why we chose a trullo over an apartment in Taranto. The other reasons are explained on our blog, so I won’t repeat them again here.

As we also explain on that Project page, we’re also trying to promote slow and sustainable travel this year, and trying to be more eco-friendly travellers. We’ve had to drive all over Europe for other projects, sometimes for two months at a time in a country or region, so we’re trying to consciously avoid driving as much as possible this year to reduce our carbon footprint. We want to be able to walk or bike as much as possible, and to use public transport instead when we can. So obviously this factor also influences the decisions we’ve made with HomeAway as to where we’ll stay.

We *are* renting local apartments in local neighbourhoods, which is exactly what we just did in Jerez and now in Barcelona, and in Ceret, a village in France that we’re heading to next, and in many other destinations. But we’re also mixing the accommodation up a lot, to show people the wide range of styles of properties that people can rent – while everyone knows there are villas in Tuscany, not everyone knows about the trullo in Puglia. In Mexico, we’re staying in a casita, in Bali in a traditional house, and so on.

Perhaps have a think about where *you* like to stay when you go overseas on holidays. Because many people travel very differently when they go *away* compared to how they travel when they are *at home*.

Regarding your other off-the-beaten-track choices in Italy, Valle d’Aosta is incredibly touristy – we covered it for two books we wrote on Northern Italy – and Basilicata is *almost* as ‘popular’ as Puglia now, although of course it’s still off-the-beaten-track for many. But you’re right about the other places – they were on our list of choices, but we can’t stay everywhere.

Gosh, I think I’ve written as much as your post (or more!), haven’t I?! I’m so sorry! That’s what happens when a travel writer comments. Thanks for the discussion! It’s been very interesting.